Jilly Cooper's Rivals on Disney - episode 1 discussion thread WITH SPOILERS! Open the Pouilly Fume & curl up on the sofa with a lurcher puppy here!

[TheSecondMrsCampbellBlack]

Exciting!

One and a half episodes in and it’s BRILLIANT

The amount of work and effort that has gone into this production. - the 80s look is brilliant - I am surprised they weren’t able to find a blond actor who could play Rupert. I imagine they must have tried…
Alex Hassel has got the character right, just looks wrong.
Tony B doesn’t look as I imagined either, but that matters less as I didn’t have a massive crush on him for most of my teens.

am really enjoying the series - particularly Katherine Parkinson. Aidan TURNER AND Danny Dyer v good too. I do like David Teenant as a baddy.

Not read the books and know very little about it, but I like a daft romance drama, esp British, so thought I'd give it a go.

Having watched the first two episodes, so far it just seems like a bunch of unhappy rich adulterers doing the boring things unhappy rich adulterers do, so I'm not quite seeing yet why it inspires so much interest.

I like much of the cast and the 80s details. Maybe the series will click for me as it gets going and the characters will become more endearing. I agree that Rupert Double-Barrel seems not quite right looks-wise for the leading man role; whatever make-up they've put on him makes his face distractingly mask-like and cakey, and in general he looks about three decades older than the young-looking leading woman, so it's difficult to root for them as (presumably in the end) a genuine romantic couple and not something as sleazy as the rest of the characters' affairs, especially with him openly assaulting her (but it's the 80s... so need to give it leeway, or something).

I’ve watched the whole lot now but I won’t say yet what I think about the ending or what’s included in later episodes. Will come back to that later when everyone’s watched it all.

This is one of my favourite books so I was very nervous but generally I think it’s brilliant.

Things I loved
The majority of the casting is spot on. I especially liked Lizzie, Declan, Maud, Monica, Fred and Sarah. David Tennant doesn’t quite look right for Tony but he plays it so well I don’t mind.
The music
The clothes
The houses
The Birdie Song in episode 1
The nod to Austen in episode 2 (Badly done Rupert)
Subtle hints to other books (the dock leaves in Lizzie’s book, and a note Declan throws on the fire in a later episode)
Jilly’s cameo
Cameron pitching an idea which is basically Eldorado and Tony saying it’s ideas like that that will save them
That they generally stuck very closely to the book and included most of the key events and even lots of minor characters that I had expected to have been cut

Things I didn’t like
Rupert. Alex Hassell gets the confidence and arrogance right but Rupert needs to look attractive and to me he just isn’t at all. I could live with the dark hair if he was otherwise good looking but for me he doesn’t work as Rupert even though his acting of the part is good.
Also not sure about Taggie. The actress is great but she should have dark hair and be more naive (although I do understand why they have aged her up slightly and made her a little bit more worldly than she was in the book.
Caitlin not sulky enough and also looks too old (again I suspect done deliberately).
Lisa McGrillis also not right for Valerie. Her accent is all wrong. Great actress and loved her in Mum but she’s not right here.
Beattie Johnson is far too glam compared to the book character!
Why did they change Tracey Makepeace’s name to Shelley?
Disappointed no Billy and Janey

Generally though I do think they’ve done a brilliant job and it was clearly done by people who love Jilly’s work and really get the tone of it. Just a shame the casting of Rupert really doesn’t work although as is shown on this and other Rivals threads it is a very hard character to cast as everyone’s got such different ideas of what he should look like, but he should at least be blonde and attractive!

I feel a bit alone right now; here you all are, the lovely Rivals tribe, but I seem to be the only person really struggling with the pointless changes that they’ve made to this.

Cameron is credited for bringing Johnny Friedlander and the design of Declan’s set to the table, both of which were crucially his ideas. I know these seem like small details, but in that case, why change them? Charles Fairburn is desperately unhappy and lathes Cameron’s unkindness, but this has been lost into the ether too… i dunno, I’m not sure I’m going to get much further and feeling a bit gutted…

To be fair, quite a few people enjoyed the books but have always regarded RCB to be a grubby character, so I thought that aspect of the casting was spot-on. (Er, I'll get my coat.)

Didn't read the books but gave this a go. Great cast but just vastly unlikable characters.
Not sure if I will bother with watching it all.

I think this is one of those rare series where people really enjoying it who haven't read the book, will be in the minority, i think you almost have to have read the book and already fallen in love with all of the characters to be able to suffer them on screen! I've watched it all and loved it, but Rivals is one of my favourite and most re-read books.

I think there are individual characters who don't match up to Jilly's versions, most obviously Rupert, and also Bas, for me. But the essence of the whole thing is just absolutely spot on. The feel and look of it all is exactly as I imagined it when first reading it as a pretty shocked 14 year old!

So I loved him being a brilliant shot, that was perfect. I obviously clocked it was a new gun but didn’t recognise the Purdey’s carrier bag so thanks for that little extra! Is it unrealistic that a brand new gun would be so accurate?

I agree. I understand the need to change a few things for plot reasons like Taggie going to see Helen before Rupert's interview and turning up at the studio which added a bit of drama ,but not sure why we need Charles and Gerald, Archie in the woods with the estate worker (unless it's to be not 100% heterosexual encounters so it's a bit more 2024)
Also little things like Patrick on a motorbike and Charles in an ambulance, Shelly instead of Tracey, I suppose it doesn't matter but to die hard fans of the book like me it seems pointlessly annoying!!
I did like the addition of Perdita though - like PP let out a little squeak at this!! (and then tried to explain to DH who's never read a word of JC..)

Nah, you're not alone. I also feel they've made certain changes that make less sense than the original. For me it's mainly the arc of the Taggie/Rupert romance.

I’m five episodes in now and I do agree the AH has nailed the character of RCB. But I just can’t find him attractive at all. IMO Rupert should be instantly pants-droppingly drop-dead gorgeous. AH, for me, isn’t even ‘Well he’s not my cup of tea but I can see why some people might fancy him’. I find his looks quite repellent.

Oh well. I’m not going to complain about it again because I am enjoying the series so much, so it hasn’t spoiled it for me.

Just starting episode 5. James and Sarah on the breakfast show sofa, everything about it is a spot on portrayal of 80s breakfast tv. The whole vibe around Corinium is just like an office I worked at in 1987. I'm enjoying this so much more than I expected to!

Watched the first three episodes last night and really enjoying it.

Love Lizzie and Taggie.

I think the casting of RCB is great - pleased they haven't used someone with conventional good looks - he has a very interesting face! A good painter's model!

The hair, clothes and makeup are brilliant - transported back to the 80s plus the soundtrack is fab too.

I read the book when it first came out and I can't quite remember it all which is nice 😊.

There will never be a book adaptation which is 100% faithful to the source material. You have to view it as a slightly different version of the same story. None of the small changes have really bothered me so far (am only on episode 3 though). I didn't really understand why they aged up Johnny Friedlander (I always picture him as a young Johnny Depp in my head) but they must have had their reasons (can absolutely see why they ditched the bit where he sleeps with a 14 year old!).

Agree that Rupert isn't attractive enough, but he does have the attitude right, so I'm willing to suspend my disbelief.

The actor playing James must have based some of the characterisation on Alan Partridge. It’s hilarious, I love it.

If you want to see Oliver Chris (James Vereker) give a truly phenomenal performance, watch the NT Midsummer Nights Dream that he is in. He is hilarious.

He is a brilliant actor and really gets the characters.

I was just about to say that @DrRiverSong - he's an incredibly talented guy.

How could one real man ever epitomize the infinitely varied imaginings of an entire generation of women??

I think they’ve done a fine job with RCB. Having read it as a feisty teen in the
90s/early00s I always thought he was irredeemable anyway

I haven’t read the book and I am LOVING it. I was 15 in 1986 and this is giving me huge happy nostalgia for stuff I watched and read then. But mostly it’s an absolute hoot and so much fun. DH and I binged 4 episodes last night, and it is not his sort of thing at all.

I only "read" the books as a 12 year old - me and my friends skipping through to the sexy bits! That was sex education in the 80's!

But I enjoyed Episode 1 and the costumes, music etc.

The only thing for me was that I didn't find Rupert likeable in anyway. Yes I know he's a total bastard - but you are supposed to resonate with Taggy finding him irresistible. In the same way that Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones is an utterly poor choice of boyfriend but we kind of secretly like him all the same - I think Hugh Grant plays that really well.

I don't warm to him in any way and saw him as a horrid predator, in fact I found myself thinking "nooooooo don't fall for him" every time I saw the young woman looking doe-eyed at him.

Ah I have just twigged that James v is also the chap from trying and maternal. Who is gorgeous underneath the weird styling he has here to look more Alan partridge.

No wonder he looks lovely in sone shots and I can't work out who he is.

He should be Rupert! (As I said before but even more so now I have remembered the actor)

Shall allow myself 2 more episodes today.

Only watched episode one so far as my children were hogging the TV last night 🙄. I thought Lizzie was meant to be a literary writer rather than a bonkbuster author (Jilly alter-ego?). Rupert Penry-Jones would have made a good RCB back in the day but probably a bit too old now.

i totally agree that a younger Rupert Penry Jones would have been perfect or James Norton. But I’m loving it. I watched three episodes on the bounce last night.

Has anyone regretted watching it? I have such a clear picture in my mind, not just of RCB and Taggie but other characters, the layout of the houses etc. I'm worried if it's different on TV it will affect my "mental Rutshire" every time I read the book again in the future. Sounds a bit bonkers I know, but it is such a favourite book of mine!